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Title: Stephen Hawking has died. The famed physicist was 76.
Source:
Boing Boing
URL Source: https://boingboing.net/2018/03/13/stephen-hawking-has-died-the.html
Published: Mar 14, 2018
Author: Staff
Post Date: 2018-03-14 09:38:34 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 1321
Comments: 7
“It just seemed that cosmology was more exciting, because it really did seem to involve the big question: Where did the universe come from?” — Stephen Hawking, 8 January 1942 - 14 March 2018 British physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76. He was known for his groundbreaking work with black holes and relativity. He died at his home in Cambridge, England. A family spokesman announced the death in a statement to news media. Hawking awed the world with an unmatched ability to make science understandable and fascinating to broad audiences. PHOTO: Paul E. Alers/NASA He remains one of the best-selling science authors of all time. His first book, A Brief History of Time, has sold nearly 10 million copies in 40 languages. Hawking wrote or participated in the creation of many other popular science books including A Briefer History of Time, On the Shoulders of Giants, and George's Secret Key to the Universe. From the BBC: His children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, said: "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. "He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years." They praised his "courage and persistence" and said his "brilliance and humour" inspired people across the world. "He once said, 'It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love.' We will miss him forever," they said. “Not since Albert Einstein has a scientist so captured the public imagination and endeared himself to tens of millions of people around the world,” Michio Kaku, a professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York, said in an interview with the New York Times' Dennis Overbye: Scientifically, Dr. Hawking will be best remembered for a discovery so strange that it might be expressed in the form of a Zen koan: When is a black hole not black? When it explodes. What is equally amazing is that he had a career at all. As a graduate student in 1963, he learned he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neuromuscular wasting disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was given only a few years to live. The disease reduced his bodily control to the flexing of a finger and voluntary eye movements but left his mental faculties untouched. He went on to become his generation’s leader in exploring gravity and the properties of black holes, the bottomless gravitational pits so deep and dense that not even light can escape them. 
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#2. To: Deckard (#0)
He lived a very long time after getting a diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease. The vast majority die in a few years. Hawking survived for over 50 years with it. I think Hawking's reputation relies on his wheelchair sex appeal, kind of like all those photos of Einstein with his "mad scientist" hairdo. Einstein and Hawking played up that schtick to the limit, both producing "physics without math" books and such to cash in on their notoriety as top physicists. I think Hawking's reputation is inflated. He accomplished nothing comparable to Einstein's theory of relativity. He is more famous for being famous than anything else.
#4. To: Tooconservative (#2)
Did you know that Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig's disease? What are the odds of that?
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Although respiratory support can ease problems with breathing and prolong survival, it does not affect the progression of ALS. Most people with ALS die between two and four years after the diagnosis.[9] Around half of people with ALS die within 30 months of their symptoms beginning, and about 20% of people with ALS live between 5 years and 10 years after symptoms begin.[4] Guitarist Jason Becker has lived since 1989 with the disorder, while cosmologist Stephen Hawking lived for 55 more years following his diagnosis, but they are considered unusual cases.
Replies to Comment # 2. He lived a very long time after getting a diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease.
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